Slopestyle season set for Tuesday start at 2024 Laax Open
Jan 15, 2024·Snowboard Park & Pipe
The first phase of competition at 2023/24 FIS Snowboard slopestyle season-starter is set to drop in on Tuesday, when a big day of men’s qualifications and women’s finals hits the slopes of Crap Sogn Gion at the 2024 Laax Open.
With a mixed bag of weather in the forecast for this week, organisers and officials in Laax elected to revamp the program from the original schedule, moving the women’s semifinals up from Thursday to Tuesday to take advantage of some forecasted sun.
While there could be more schedule changes in our near future, for now we know that women’s semifinals are slated to begin at 9:10 CET, followed by men’s qualifications heat one at 11:40, and finally heat two at 14:10. From there, we’ve got men’s semifinals slated for Friday, with finals for both the women and men then set to go down on what we hope will be a sunny Saturday beginning at 13:30.
The top 12 men from each heat will be put through to semifinals, with the top 12 from semis then going on to Saturday’s finals. For the women, the top eight riders from semifinals will go straight through to finals.
While the new schedule creates some challengers, organisers in Laax are confident that they will be able to provide a free livestream of qualifications at on the Laax Open website, HERE.
While all that’s going down, we’ll also see the first day of Laax Open halfpipe training taking to the immaculate Snowpark Laax pipe…but we’ll have more on that later in the week.
We’ve already dropped our 2023/24 FIS Snowboard slopestyle World Cup season preview, which you can read HERE. However, below we’ll get into a few more Laax-specific details to get you ready for a big week ahead.
GASSER ON THE HUNT FOR FIRST LAAX OPEN WIN
Austria’s Anna Gasser has won just about everything there is to win in snowboarding, including two Olympic gold medals, two World Championships gold medals, four X Games golds, seven World Cup crystal globes, and 12 World Cups. One thing she does not have, however, is a Laax Open victory.
She’s been close, including a second place finish in 2022 and a third place finish last season behind winner Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL) and runner-up Mia Brookes (GBR). With Sadwoski-Synnott out of this year’s competition due to injury, the road to a Laax Open title is perhaps looking a little clearer for Gasser.
On the other hand, perhaps not. Brookes is here in Laax once again and has been absolutely tearing up the Laax course through training, and the soon-to-be 17-year-old reigning slopestyle World Champion is hungry to earn her first World Cup victory on the biggest stage of the season.
Also sure to be in the mix this week is Kokomo Murase, as the Japanese phenom comes into this week’s action just a month removed from a bar-raising performance at the Copper Mountain Visa Big Air World Cup, where she stomped three triple cork rotations on her way to victory - including two never-been-dones. Murase is cooking right now, and is a strong candidate to become the first Japanese Laax Open slopestyle winner.
Then there’s the USA’s Julia Marino, the 2022/23 season’s slopestyle crystal globe winner and Laax Open winner from back in 2020. Marino’s claimed three slopestyle World Cup victories in a row to close out last season on her way to the globe, and the 26-year-old would love to keep that streak running into 2023/24 here in Laax.
With 2022 Laax Open winner Tess Coady (AUS), Bakuriani 2023 World Championships slopestyle bronze medallist Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN), and other top names like Hailey Langland (USA), Annika Morgan (GER) and Laurie Blouin (CAN) on hand, there’s plenty of firepower in the women’s competition.
KLEVELAND LOOKING TO PICK UP WHERE HE LEFT OFF LAST SLOPESTYLE SEASON
The human highlight reel known as Marcus Kleveland only dropped in on two FIS slopestyle competitions last season, but he sure made those two starts count, as he took top spot in both the 2023 Laax Open and the Bakuriani 2023 slopestyle World Championships.
While Kleveland wasn’t able to hit the podium in his two big air World Cup starts this season, slopestyle is where to shred technician truly excels, with his bag of tricks deeper than perhaps anyone else who has ever strapped on a snowboard. With the Laax course offering up a few tricky wrinkles as per tradition, Kleveland should be set to shine once again this time around.
The list of strong challengers standing between Kleveland and a repeat win in Laax is long and deep though, with a whole army of Japanese riders leading the way.
Thus far into the 2023/24 season there are five members of the Japanese big air/slopestyle team sitting in the Park & Pipe overall top-10 after a big air campaign in which those riders were dominant.
While big air crystal globe winner Kira Kimura isn’t on the start list here in Laax, his teammates and fellow top-10 riders Taiga Hasegawa, Ryoma Kimata, Hiroake Kunitake and Hiroto Ogiwara all very much are. Throw in last season’s X Games slopestyle silver medallist Takeru Otsuka and you’ve got a whole lot of firepower on deck for the Japanese.
Not to be outdone is the U.S. squad, with PyeongChang 2018 Olympic gold medallist Red Gerard leading a team that also boasts heavyweights like Luke Winkelmann, Brock Crouch, Jake Canter, Judd Henkes and Chris Corning, with all of those riders save for Winkelmann and Crouch owners of previous podium results here in Laax.
Along with Kleveland, Scandavia will be well represented by the likes of last season’s Laax third place finished Sven Thorgren (SWE), Rene Rinnekangas (FIN) and Kleveland’s fellow Norwegian Mons Roisland also on hand.
New Zealand’s Tiarn Collins, Darcy Sharpe of Canada, Dutch ripper Niek van der Velden, Australia’s Valentino Guseli and Dongheon Lee of Korean are few of the other names to keep an eye on this weekend.
Anyway you slice it, the 2024 Laax Open is going to be banger. Stay tuned to the livestreams and to our social media channels throughout the week for plenty more.
QUICK LINKS
Laax Open data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
